For Families

If you recently received unexpected news about your unborn baby, you are not alone.

We understand the shock, grief, and fear that comes with hearing your baby is not expected to survive or may face significant challenges.

Joan's Reach can help connect you with compassionate, experienced providers and other parents who understand.

Connect with other parents in our private Facebook group for families experiencing a life-limiting diagnosis for their unborn child, either currently or in the past. It is a safe place for parents to share support, information, and hope for continuing the pregnancy and beyond.

Join Support Group

Helpful resources

Perinatal Hospice and Palliative Care

Carrying to Term

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Remembrance photography)

Be Not Afraid

Share Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support

Family stories

Jude

We learned that our son would most likely be born with a condition that was not compatible with life after birth. Knowing that the upcoming months would be incredibly difficult for us, the Perinatal and Pediatric Palliative Care team at our hospital provided us with the guidance and resources that we needed to prepare for our son. The care team put us in touch with Joan’s Reach, who provided us with wonderful resources to prepare for Jude’s birth, including a photographer who works with families dealing with infant loss. The support we received from professionals and compassionate individuals turned an impossible situation into one filled with comfort and peace.

- Jude's Dad

Leo

Our baby, Leo, was diagnosed at 26 weeks with Trisomy 18, a chromosome disorder which has a tagline of being “incompatible with life”. We were told that Leo would have zero quality of life, that he would suffer. When I felt so incredibly lost, drowning and suffocated in a sorrow that I never knew existed, I found a life raft in Joan’s Reach.

- Leo's Mom